Green Roof

This roof serves as a bridge between the main building and the surrounding natural world, creating an extended haven where flora and fauna can find rest and refuge. Covered with the same plant species as the surrounding meadows, it balances the more actively harvested green pastures used for hay production for livestock. By supporting biodiversity in this way, it also helps maintain the water cycle and contributes to cleaner air.

Beyond its ecological role, the roof plays a vital part in weather management. It retains up to 60% of rainwater, helping to prevent flooding and regulate water levels in the area during heavy rains or storms. This “second skin” also increases the building’s resilience to climate disruption by buffering temperature fluctuations between indoors and outdoors. The substrate—created on-site from excavated soil, crushed red bricks from the old farmhouse, and humus from cattle compost—reuses what would otherwise be waste materials from excavation and demolition. Depending on its thickness, it protects the building from solar heat in summer and helps reduce the urban heat island effect. In winter, the vegetation insulates against the cold and helps maintain warmth within the Bovino space.

This roof embodies the power of “working with”—working with what is already there, with what is nearby, and with what is often dismissed as waste: excavated earth, manure, broken bricks. These discarded elements become the raw material for a sustainable solution for climate and biodiversity—a remarkable example of circularity. It stands as a tangible expression of the extraordinary potential humanity can activate when it chooses to transform problems into solutions.